Just then Mrs. Brooks groaned in the next room and called Rose, who went
in to minister to her real needs, or to condole with her fancied ones,
whichever course of action appeared to be the more agreeable at the
moment.
Mrs. Brooks desired conversation, it seemed, or at least she desired an
audience for a monologue, for she recognized no antiphonal obligations
on the part of her listeners. The doctors were not doing her a speck of
good, and she was just squandering money in a miserable boarding-house,
when she might be enjoying poor health in her own home; and she did n't
believe her hens were receiving proper care, and she had forgotten
to pull down the shades in the spare room, and the sun would fade the
carpet out all white before she got back, and she did n't believe Dr.
Smith's magnetism was any more use than a cat's foot, nor Dr. Robinson's
electricity any better than a bumblebee's buzz, and she had a great mind
to go home and try Dr. Lord from Bonnie Eagle; and there was a letter
for Rose on the bureau, which had come before supper, but the shiftless,
lazy, worthless landlady had forgotten to send it up till just now.
The letter was from Mite Shapley, but Rose could read only half of it to
Mrs. Brooks, little beside the news that the Waterman barn, the finest
barn in the whole township, had been struck by lightning and burned
to the ground. Stephen was away at the time, having taken Rufus to
Portland, where an operation on his eyes would shortly be performed at
the hospital, and one of the neighbors was sleeping at the River Farm
and taking care of the cattle; still the house might not have been saved
but for one of Alcestis Crambry's sudden bursts of common sense, which
occurred now quite regularly. He succeeded not only in getting the
horses out of the stalls, but gave the alarm so promptly that the whole
neighborhood was soon on the scene of action. Stephen was the only man,
Mite reminded Rose, who ever had any patience with, or took any pains to
teach, Alcestis, but he never could have expected to be rewarded in this
practical way. The barn was only partly insured; and when she had met
Stephen at the station next day, and condoled with him on his loss,
he had said: “Oh, well, Mite, a little more or less does n't make much
difference just now.”
“The rest would n't interest you, Mrs. Brooks,” said Rose, precipitately
preparing to leave the room.
“Something about Claude, I suppose,” ventured that astute lady. “I think
Mite kind of fancied him. I don't believe he ever gave her any real
encouragement; but he'd make love to a pump, Claude Merrill would, and
so would his father before him. How my sister Abby made out to land him
we never knew, for they said he'd proposed to every woman in the town
of Bingham, not excepting the wooden Indian girl in front of the
cigar-store, and not one of 'em but our Abby ever got a chance to name
the day. Abby was as set as the everlastin' hills, and if she'd made up
her mind to have a man he could n't wriggle away from her nohow in
the world. It beats all how girls do run after these slick-haired,
sweet-tongued, Miss Nancy kind o' fellers, that ain't but little good as
beaux an' worth less than nothing as husbands.”
Rose scarcely noticed what Mrs. Brooks said, she was too anxious to read
the rest of Mite Shapley's letter in the quiet of her own room.
Stephen looks thin and pale [so it ran on], but he does not allow anybody
to sympathize with him. I think you ought to know something that I have n't
told before for fear of hurting your feelings; but if I were in your place
I'd like to hear everything, and then you'll know how to act when you come
home. Just after you left, Stephen ploughed up all the land in front of
your new house,--every inch of it, all up and down the road, between the
fence and the front doorstep,--and then he planted corn where you were
going to have your flower-beds. He has closed all the blinds and hung a “To
Let” sign on the large elm at the gate. Stephen never was spiteful in his
life, but this looks a little like spite. Perhaps he only wanted to save
his self-respect and let people know that everything between you was over
forever. Perhaps he thought it would stop talk once and for all. But you
won't mind, you lucky girl, staying nearly three months in Boston! [So
Almira purled on in violet ink, with shaded letters.] How I wish it had
come my way, though I'm not good at rubbing rheumatic patients, even when
they are _his_ aunt. Is _he_ as devoted as ever? And when will _it_ be? How
do you like the theater? Mother thinks you won't attend; but, by what he
used to say, I am sure church members in Boston always go to amusements.
Your loving friend,
Almira Shapley.
P.S. They say Rufus's doctor's bills here, and the operation and hospital
expenses in Portland, will mount up to five hundred dollars. Of course
Stephen will be dreadfully hampered by the toss of his barn, and maybe he
wants to let your house that was to be, because he really needs money. In
that case the dooryard won't be very attractive to tenants, with corn
planted right up to the steps and no path left! It's two feet tall now, and
by August (just when you were intending to move in) it will hide the front
windows. Not that you'll care, with a diamond on your engagement finger!
The letter was more than flesh and blood could stand, and Rose flung
herself on her bed to think and regret and repent, and, if possible, to
sob herself to sleep.
She knew now that she had never admired and respected Stephen so much
as at the moment when, under the reproach of his eyes, she had given him
back his ring. When she left Edgewood and parted with him forever she
had really loved him better than when she had promised to marry him.
Claude Merrill, on his native Boston heath, did not appear the romantic,
inspiring figure he had once been in her eyes. A week ago she distrusted
him; tonight she despised him.
What had happened to Rose was the dilation of her vision. She saw things
under a wider sky and in a clearer light. Above all, her heart was wrung
with pity for Stephen--Stephen, with no comforting woman's hand to help
him in his sore trouble; Stephen, bearing his losses alone, his burdens
and anxieties alone, his nursing and daily work alone. Oh, how she felt
herself needed! Needed! that was the magic word that unlocked her better
nature. “Darkness is the time for making roots and establishing plants,
whether of the soil or of the soul,” and all at once Rose had become a
woman: a little one, perhaps, but a whole woman--and a bit of an angel,
too, with healing in her wings. When and how had this metamorphosis come
about? Last summer the fragile brier-rose had hung over the river and
looked at its pretty reflection in the placid surface of the water. Its
few buds and blossoms were so lovely, it sighed for nothing more. The
changes in the plant had been wrought secretly and silently. In some
mysterious way, as common to soul as to plant life, the roots had
gathered in more nourishment from the earth, they had stored up strength
and force, and all at once there was a marvelous fructifying of the
plant, hardiness of stalk, new shoots everywhere, vigorous leafage, and
a shower of blossoms.
But everything was awry: Boston was a failure; Claude was a weakling and
a flirt; her turquoise ring was lying on the river-bank; Stephen did
not love her any longer; her flower-beds were ploughed up and planted in
corn; and the cottage that Stephen had built and she had furnished, that
beloved cottage, was to let.
She was in Boston; but what did that amount to, after all? What was
the State House to a bleeding heart, or the Old South Church to a pride
wounded like hers?
At last she fell asleep, but it was only by stopping her ears to the
noises of the city streets and making herself imagine the sound of
the river rippling under her bedroom windows at home. The backyards of
Boston faded, and in their place came the banks of the Saco, strewn
with pine-needles, fragrant with wild flowers. Then there was the bit of
sunny beach, where Stephen moored his boat. She could hear the sound of
his paddle. Boston lovers came a-courting in the horse-cars, but hers
had floated downstream to her just at dusk in a birch-bark canoe, or
sometimes, in the moonlight, on a couple of logs rafted together.
But it was all over now, and she could see only Stephen's stern face as
he flung the despised turquoise ring down the river-bank.